Wales race ahead but Speed warns against the wall

Mark Hughes, who is running 26 miles around London on Sunday week, would probably relish a robust collision with the man who came up with the line about football being a marathon rather than a sprint.

But the cliché was worth another visit after a lop-sided affair in which his side extended their unbeaten run to 10 games. That sequence has included the first four of Wales's eight qualifiers for Portugal 2004 and at the halfway stage in this race they have played four, won four, scored 10, conceded one and top Group Nine with 12 points. Each time they have reached a wall Wales have overcome it, not hit it.

And now Wales have a five-month pause until the next obstacle, Serbia and Montenegro in Belgrade, after the postponement of that fixture on security grounds this week. It is a moment to review progress and rarely has looking over the shoulder been quite so enjoyable for Welsh footballers.

In 127 years of playing, this was Wales's 150th international victory which, given breaks for wars, is still about one win every 11 months. Those wins were pockmarked by a lot of defeats and the way Hughes mentioned previous disappointments and humiliations - "flying back from Georgia with our tail between our legs after being beat 5-0" - the scars are still there.

But Wales have now won four games since last September. As they began Saturday with a forward line from Manchester United, Celtic and Newcastle - Ryan Giggs, John Hartson and Craig Bellamy - and had Premiership players of the quality of Simon Davies and Gary Speed behind them, they were expected to outplay Azerbaijan.

Bellamy was initially credited with the first goal after 13 seconds, though he never got a touch, and Speed, Hartson and Giggs netted the others.

Yet this was a victory won as much by Hughes's ability to weld those sprinters to more enduring personnel, like Mark Pembridge and Andy Melville. They are at Everton and Fulham respectively and have 104 caps between them. They know their way around.

But six of the seven Wales substitutes came from outside the Premiership. When Speed limped off with a groin strain he was replaced by Paul Trollope of Northampton, second bottom of the Second Division.

When Robbie Savage departed with an ankle injury, after only 18 minutes, on came Carl Robinson. Nominally with Portsmouth, Robinson is actually on loan at Walsall. Similarly, with Davies starting at right-back due to Mark Delaney's absence, John Oster began in midfield.

Remember John Oster? Once he was a next young thing, joining Everton from Grimsby for £1.5m as a teenager. He turned 24 in December but Oster was back at Grimsby by then, on loan from Sunderland after his career hit a very big wall.

It bottomed out the day Sunderland fans put him up for auction on the internet and received a bid of 50p. "Who knows why it went wrong?" Oster said. "I was only 18 when I went to Everton and maybe it was too much too soon."

Hughes hoped Oster's fine personal display would "kick-start" his career, and the agility and aggression Oster showed here, if repeated elsewhere, will do that.

Oster topped a wholesome afternoon for the Welsh. Robinson said that Speed, as captain, made a short speech of appreciation afterwards. "When he wants to say something, we listen. For him to thank the players from the lower divisions meant a lot to us."

Speed also said 19 points as a target "is obviously realistic with four games to go". But he fears Italy, who beat Finland 2-0 on Saturday night with a brace from Christian Vieri.

Three games in 22 days in August and September - Serbia and Italy away, Finland in Cardiff - will define Welsh qualification. "The hard work starts here," Speed said. "We've done nothing yet but given ourselves a really good chance." In a group with Italy and Serbia, though, that is an achievement in itself.

Wales also had the Italians in their Euro 2000 qualification group. Italy finished top, Wales fourth of five. Today Italy are second, five points behind Wales. That is a quantifiable advance, even if Hughes remains stubbornly cautious.

"Frankly I do not expect to win," he said. But Hughes was talking about the London marathon, not Group Nine.